The thesis project reconstructs the relations between conflicting social groups through the
exchange of goods and ideas in Portside Park. The project also explores how the evolution of an
infrastructure is capable of criticizing the original conditions of its construction. This is completed
through the design of a series of possible future events such as a pedestrian overpass, and public
market in Portside Park on Vancouver's central waterfront.
Robert Thayer Jr. and Bill Morrish were influential in exploring how we understand the landscape
and the importance of visual ecology which expresses an ecology behind a site. A collective identity can
be influenced by such ideas, and if given a place of importance, can also act as forums, adding more
than just physical boundaries to the city.
The project is sighted on the waterfront, a landscape that currently lies dormant and in a state of
transition. The requirements for site selection were that the site must have the potential for an evolution
of its own with hidden or unused elements that may be renewed and adapted to enrich the expression of
the site.
The starting point for the project was to speculate on a series of future events that respond to
possible social and political forces affecting the site. The matrix was a method of determining the
potential of the site. The moment that is detailed, for the purposes of this project, is the year 2020. At
this time, the coil, a pedestrian overpass, responds to the permanence of the city through its 'building as
wall' vocabulary. The wall is then transformed into a connection from the city to the park. The market
shields the rail and opens up to the park. Here the boundary between the connector and enclosure has
been inverted and the visitor is inserted into the market building. The visitor is released into the park in
the company of others within a defined realm, shielded by a canopy of trees. The final place for quiet
contemplation is the beach which remains open and exposed - the most valued and protected part of the
park. Valued not for is aesthetic achievements but for its political and social meaning.
The pedestrian embarks on a journey. Leaving the dense built environment of the city, the
pedestrian ascends the public walkway over the tracks and gradually enters the transition of the bosk,
where the mounds and trees enclose the body yet prepare him for the open water.
In conclusion the project attempts to accommodate a place for the individual and the collective,
it defines a place for establishing a coexistence.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/8162 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Jones, Michaela Margaret |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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